2011 POLLS: NIGERIA’S FORMER MILITARY RULER,GENERAL BABANGIDA, DECLARES HIS INTEREST

IBB Formally Declares to Contest for President

CHANNELS TELEVISION, LAGOS

September 15, 2010 0:00 am

Former military President, General Ibrahim Babangida on Wednesday, September 15 formally declared his intention to run at the Eagles Square in Abuja, Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory.

He will run on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) if he clinches the party presidential ticket after the primary election to be conducted in October.

The declaration coincided with the PDP’s National Executive Council (NEC) meeting.

The venue of the event, Eagle Square was jam packed with supporters, friends and relatives.

Some of the notable personalities present were governors of Zamfara and Niger states, Mahmud Aliyu Shinkafi and Dr. Muazu Aliyu. Former Senate President, Ken Nnamani as well as former Speaker of the House of Representatives Ghalli Naaba were all in attendance.
Governor Aliyu told the crowd that Niger state, the home state of General Babangida is solidly behind him.

On his part, the former senate president said that Nigeria needs rotation of powers for the peace and security of the country and that people should rally around the Northern region.

General Babangida who was the last to speak said that he has the experience to pull Nigeria out of its present situation and would ensure the economic development of the nation.

Ahead of today’s declaration in the Eagle square in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja metropolis witnessed huge traffic in some roads yesterday as his supporters started arriving Abuja for the formal presidential declaration of the former military president.

The grand event had thousands of IBB supporters mostly from the north trooped to Abuja yesterday for the colourful event that took place in the Eagles Square.

In spite of the heavy down pour in the Abuja metropolis yesterday, organizers of the event defied the rain to meet their deadline.

The IBB Campaign Organisation had said yesterday that it would go ahead with the declaration ceremony, spite of the national secretariat of the party slating an emergency National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting to coincide with the event.

Director of publicity of the campaign organisation, Prince Kassim Afegbua , insisted that there was no going back, as according to him, the date for the declaration was fixed three weeks ago.

There is no going back. We had fixed our event three weeks ago, so it is no news. But, the party is the party. We demand a level playing field from the party and we hope this is not a deliberate attempt to frustrate our intentions.

“We are going ahead irrespective of the NEC meeting. The opinion of the party may be altruistic,” but the timing is bad, Afegbua explained.

But, the national publicity secretary of PDP, Professor Rufai Ahmed Alkali has said that the party convened the emergency meeting for today to enable it meet the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) deadline on the submission of candidates for the election.